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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Roy Williams had his share of
headlines in North Carolina five months ago. His team's 31-point
loss will get some more.
Wake Forest got a career-high 21 points from Josh Howard, and
Craig Dawson added 20 as the 11th-ranked Demon Deacons beat
Kansas 84-53 as the Jayhawks (No. 4 ESPN/USA Today, No. 3 AP)
played without leading scorer Kenny
Gregory.
"There's not a lot to say. It was just one big butt-kicking,"
Williams said Thursday night. "That will be a headline, I guess? I
gave you (reporters) something."
One of the nation's best offenses looked lost without its star
as the Jayhawks matched their fourth-worst loss in school history
and second-worst under Williams.
"It was a total breakdown," Williams said.
|  | | Wake Forest's Robert O'Kelley, left, and Kirk Hinrich battle for a loose ball Thursday night. |
Kansas (7-1) came in averaging 92.1 points and shooting 55.4
percent -- third-best in the nation -- but couldn't get its offense
clicking without its senior leader in its first road game.
Gregory was off to a great year, averaging 17.9 points and 7.7
rebounds, but missed his first start of the season with a stress
fracture to his right foot.
"Kenny Gregory not playing was a surprise to us," Wake Forest
coach Dave Odom said. "But I am not going to take anything away
from my team and say if he had played we might not have won. Nobody
will ever know that. But we can all say without argument the game
would have been played differently."
The Demon Deacons (7-0), shooting 68 percent in the second half,
won their 12th straight dating to last season and are off to their
best start since Tim Duncan's senior season of 1996-97.
"I don't know how we could play any better this time of year,
yet that's the thing I have to challenge my team to do," Odom
said.
The Jayhawks failed to start 8-0 under Williams for the fifth
time in his 13 seasons, shooting a season-low 38 percent and
turning it over 20 times without Gregory in the lineup.
"We've got to make some decisions in the next couple of days if
we're going to be tough enough or if we're just going to be a bunch
of pansies," Williams said.
Drew Gooden led Kansas with 13 points.
"We felt good coming in," Kansas forward Luke Axtell said.
"Obviously, it was a false confidence."
Williams made his first basketball-related appearance in the
state since turning down the North Carolina job last summer. There
was no response from the crowd when his name was introduced at a
school more than an hour away -- and there was little response from
his team following a halftime speech.
Wake Forest led by 13 at the break and went on a 16-4 run to
start the second period to put the game away.
"They showed their maturity," Gooden said of the Demon
Deacons. "A lot of teams just let up because they have the lead.
They came out there and kept it up. We tried to fight back, but it
seemed like when we fought back they would hit two in a row."
Williams called a timeout after the Demon Deacons hit their
first four shots. However, that didn't slow Wake Forest much. Less
than two minutes later, Howard and Robert O'Kelley made consecutive
3-pointers, and Antwan Scott added a baseline jumper to go up 54-29
with 14:38 left.
Williams was forced to call another timeout when the Demon
Deacons went on another run to go up by 31 eight minutes later.
"We just didn't come to play and that's the last time I'm going
to say it," a disgusted Gooden said. "It was one of those days."
Howard's previous high was 19 points against Duke last season.
He came in averaging 12.
Kansas won its last five games by an average of 34 points
against some weak competition, but fell behind by as many as 15 in
the first half against the undefeated Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest led 22-16 and then went on an 11-2 run to go up
33-18. Dawson hit a baseline jumper and a 3-pointer in the spurt,
while Howard had a dunk off a turnover and a pair of free throws.
During Wake Forest's surge, Williams yelled at his team to
"move the ball, move." Seconds after uttering those words,
Goodson dribbled the ball off his foot and out of bounds -- one of
10 first-half turnovers for the Jayhawks.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
Kansas Clubhouse
Wake Forest Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Josh Howard throws down the dunk off the Kansas turnover.
avi: 1046 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Kansas' Drew Gooden gets up to reject Antwan Scott's drive to the hoop.
avi: 477 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Craig Dawson gets the bucket and the foul in transition.
avi: 1065 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Jeff Boschee gets the easy two off the steal.
avi: 809 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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